Pages

Tuesday, May 2, 2017

Bluebonnets, Firewheels, and Brown-Eyed Susans or Poems New and Used From the Bandera Rag and Bone Shop - David Lee (Wings Press)

Today's book of poetry:Bluebonnets, Firewheels, and Brown-Eyed Susans or Poems New and Used From the Bandera Rag and Bone Shop. David Lee. Wings Press. San Antonio, Texas. 2017.

Back on May 9th, 2016 this all started. It was almost one year ago today that Today's book of poetry wrote about the former Missouri Poet Laureate David Clewell's excellent book Almost Nothing To Be Scared Of (University of Wisconsin Press, 2016). The esteemed Mr. Clewell started corresponding with us here at Today's book of poetry, started sending us books we'd never heard of. Then he introduced us to the Twangster, Mark Twang.

That was when all hell broke loose. Twang, our correspondent from the south, thinks nothing of walking into my office unannounced and throwing down a book with a demanding "read this now!" Not sure where fear ends and respect begins but Twang has certainly opened some eyes around here. Today's book of poetry is ashamed to admit that we'd never really heard of B.H. Fairchild or Rodney Jones, and we certainly had never heard of David Lee.

Today's book of poetry doesn't know exactly how to say it but try this; David Lee is the poet Today's book of poetry has been waiting for. Reading Lee is like taking a ride in a jet fighter when previously you'd only been riding a wagon. David Lee is a whole new ball game.

The editor at Wings Press had this to say about Lee:

"Imagine Robert Frost simultaneously channeling Will Rogers

and Ezra Pound. Imagine Chaucer with a twang."

Today's book of poetry would add that you could throw that witty wordsmith Woody Guthrie and old Willie the Shake to that compendium.

Bluebonnets, Firewheels, and Brown-Eyed Susans or Poems New and Used From the Bandera Rag and Bone Shop is a stunning social history of rural Texas, mid twentieth century or earlier. Most of it from a woman's perspective, a woman's voice. This is astonishing magic.

Hooter

and down they forgot as up they grew

E.E. Cummings,

"anyone lived in a pretty how town"

1

Back in the once upon a time days

Hooter Hagins got to be famous

a lot longer than the rest of us

but until Maurine Huffman

told her story to her Bobby Jack

almost everybody

even those of us who knew her then

and were there had already forgotten

that we all thought

it was a miracle

or a terrible accident

She had only one breast

No one was really sure

if they had to take it off

when she was a baby

or if she was born that way

and nobody ever thought

to ask her or her mama

which was what

to resolve the dilemma

none of us seemed to notice it

until we were in junior high school

on a day like a bolt of thunder

Monroe Newberry who was so innocent

he didn't know any better

made the longest speech of his lifetime

when he said Jesust Hooter

you only got one tiddy

from then on as long

as we could remember to think

about it she was

as important to our self identity

as President Eisenhower or Sputnik

or Governor Shivers or Coach Darrell Royal

in high school it seemed

she'd managed to find a way

to get it centered so we could look

forward to sweater days

to see Hooter's point of view

then along came Ella Mae Blodgett

with snow cone brassieres

Hooter got one to work for her

so well the Mr. Bennett

in general science quit

trying to teach any at all

on those days and had work sheets

in his drawers

ready to pass out so he

could practice on his personal theory

of successful sight alignment

wore it to class next semester

on biology test day

after ten minutes Tommy Bouchier

who was a Baptist and refrained

from all lustful contemplation

until he went to college

got up and walked out

sweat running down both sideburns

took it in the library after school

on his own time and still

graduated class valedictorian

nobody could hold

any of it against him

2

years later at the Dew Drop Inn

across the tracks drinking

bootleg liquor Jimmie Ivie asked

Bus Pennell how he lost his eye

Was it a hunting accident?

which gave Bus the opportunity

for personal loquaciousness

he said Partially

it was on a Saturday night

in my pickup out in the bushes

with Hooter I goosed her

she jerked loose

her gazoobie was like a brick

with a carriage bolt

stuck in the end of it

tore it right out of its sockets

he should have laughed

at the end of his story

and reminded them of what

they'd misplaced in their remembrance

that Charolotte Paducah before

she married Bobby Joe Rushing

shot it out with a Chinaberry

in a slingshot

when he came into her yard

after she told him not to

but when he didn't

went as quiet in there as when

Jerry Banks puked in church

during communion service

after Charles Ivins told him

it was made out of dead

ground up body parts

he wouldn't put it in his mouth

and be a cannibal

Miss Lela's eyes all wide

because her mama was midwife

saw it at Hooter's birth

them people didn't know

if it was from the Lord or the Debbil

but she had surely been touched

way back before Bus Pennell

got to her in his pickup

rumor of it spread all the way

to Odessa we heard

3

we were in line

at the picture show on a Saturday night

somebody we later thought Wheelis House

brought his cousin

down from Tahoka to go to it

he'd forgotten to warn him

the potential consequences

of silliness in our town

he said too loud

Looks like a Chinese rhinoceros

yall ought to call her Ichiban

like that Jap wrestler in Lubbick

Harold Wayne Clayburn said

You want us to call you a doctor

or a vegetarian? he said What?

never saw a thing

she hit him holding a half drunk

R.C. Cola bottle with peanuts in it

on the point of his chin

went down in a squatch

like a jellyfish

that lost its bonnet at sea

one eye rolled up and the other one

looked straight out like it's

been painted on

knocked him right out

of one of his shoes

she said to Harold Wayne

It's a veteranarain dumbass

whoever it wases cousin

that brought him

probably Wheelis

tried to say He didn't really

mean nothing by it

but Glenda Hutto

who was her friend that night

beside her standing in line

said It's too late already

you don't call the roofman

when it's raining.

we heard all over town

that at the Rotary Club meeting

Pastor Brother Gene said

It was a stampede

of accumulated wisdom and grievance

that she chose to unleash

upon that poor foreign boy

at that very moment

in order to provide the incentive

and momentum for possible redemption

and on the other hand

he probably just should have stayed

at home in Tahoka that night

even though they all laughed

it was standing room only

at the Methodist Church

next Sunday in anticipation

that Hooter might show up

for admonishment or praise

4

she began to disappear

from our collective consciousness

when she married down horribly

to Paulie Joe Wheaton after

he came home from his two years

Army service in lieu of the penitentiary

then another divorce after him then

married Byron Hainey who drifted

on the lam from Arkansas

got him a job at Piggly Wiggly finally

sacking groceries and stocking shelves

by then time and gravity

had done its duty

along with cancer getting popular

and other women getting one

or both of theirs cut off

so it wasn't much unusual any more

we forgot about her mostly

until the new husband we never accepted

either for us or her

got the prostrate cancer

took him to Dr. Tubbs

who called in Hooter

the first time said Your husband

is a real sick man but

would be a whole lot better

if he had sex once a day

on weekdays and twicet on Saturdays

when she came out of the office

he asked her what the Dr. said

with everybody listening

she said Dr. Tubbs said

you're going to die

on the next visit

Dr. Tubbs told Hooter

he had to get serious with her

said We can operate on him

try to get it out but you need to know

that would probley make him

pure flat impotent

she said Well that's fine

but would there be

any negative side effects?

that piece of gossip

brought her right back

to her previous hero status.

5

he ran off home to Arkansas

where we heard he died

and the church ladies social club

decided it wasn't right

Hooter should be alone

took her out to the old Wheaton place

where her ex Paulie Joe

who it was thought

still pined for her

had put in a trailer house

over the foundation of the burned one

Wheaton Texas-house with a sitting porch

pulled up he was lounging

on the furniture outside all bigfat

with his shirt off grinning

needing a haircut

in the sunshine

she said Turn the car around

and get me out of here right now

they said What for?

he's wanting read bad

to get back together with you

she said He looks like

a Chester white hog sitting up

with two rows of titties

hanging down his front

I don't need the reminder

or the competition

wasn't anything they could do

but take her back

she turned to look at him one last time

standing up waving his arms

his whole front belly looked like

a little boy sloshing in the bathtub

spillwaves going up and down

she said Oh set down

you silly sonofabitch

you're embarrassing me

Sybil Cockrum almost run the car

off in the ditch

them church social club women

laughed all the way in to town

they all sworn a vow

not to ever tell anybody

Ruth Lee laughed so hard

she peed herself on the carseat

6

then Maurine Huffman told

her boy Bobby Jack after that

about Hooter back in high school

how she was world famous

all the way to Abilene

put a boy in the hospital

for making fun of her

and then why

pretty soon the whole town

was all over it again

she was once more our celebrity

but when the new Cambellite

preacher's wife Sister Parker

without understanding the true essence

of the matter said

as part of her conversational duty

checking out at her register

at Piggly Wiggly I heard

somebody say you was

really something way back when

that you was maybe

the most famous person in this part of Texas

Hooter said Yes ma'am

we all were

legends in our own minds

but that was then

and today is now

and that's exactly why

most stories start Once upon a time

and then go straight

backwards from there

but at least mine

had a point to it

and the right two words

for a conclusion

so we don't have to think

about any of it any more

and that's just about

all they are to it

I hope you have

a real nice rest of the day

and we all decided with her

it was time to let it go

...

Bluebonnets, Firewheels, and Brown-Eyed Susans or Poems New and Used From the Bandera Rag and Bone Shop weighs in at well over two-hundred pages and when you are reading it you might feel like you're caught between memories of Steinbeck's Grapes of Wrath and the whispered words of wisdom from every woman in rural Texas. Bluebonnets... is the anecdotal history of a time most of you are too young to remember, Lee's women remind us.

David Lee and his Texan women broker no hypocrisy and they do it in chicken-fried, glowshimmer style.

Veal, 1948

All afternoon grandmother

dressed the meat

divided the cuts

steaks and chops

a small roast

for the ice box

and sliced the round

into thin pieces which

for the first time

she didn't pound

with a saucer's edge

and for the meal

a private portion

chicken fried

for everyone at the table

including kids

so tender adults weren't requited

to do cutting

the savor of fresh beef

filling the air

on the tongue

lingering on the mind

"This is so good"

"So so good, mama"

"Never so tender"

"Where'd you get this meat?"

and grandmother

head down to her plate

as if in prayer

"Milk cow shed her calf"

"Shed her calf?"

"Still born"

...

One Reason Why You Didn't Want

Kristine Thornton To Talk During

Town Board Meeting

While Arguing Over Redistricting With Moe Bob Trammel

If the Lord wanted you

to have an empty head

and a cob up your ass

He'd of put popcorn seeds

in your daddy's spurem

From sidebar minutes of the

monthly Town Board Meetings

19 September 1950

...

Our southern correspondent, the Twangster, didn't stop with Bluebonnets..., no, he also sent along some other David Lee titles full of real life and wonder. Today's book of poetry recently read A Legacy of Shadows - Selected Poems (Copper Canyon Press, 1999), Driving & Drinking (Copper Canyon Press, 1979,1982 and 2004), The Porcine Canticles (Copper Canyon Press, 1984) and we listened to the CD David Lee: A Listener's Guide where Lee reads from A Legacy of Shadows and News from Down to the Cafe.

The Today's book of poetry staff have been taking turns taking home the David Lee CD. It is simply riveting poetry from a voice so authentic you have no choice but to believe every word uttered.

The fact of it for Today's book of poetry is that every poem David Lee writes seems to contain more truth than the last. Lee isn't mimicking voices, he is remembering them, pitch perfect.

David Lee's eloquence is humbling but it is an awful lot of fun. Bluebonnets, Firewheels and Brown-Eyed Susans or Poems New and Used From the Bandera Rag and Bone Shop is a kind of local, oral history rendered universal. The stories and characters are new to us, they are new to everyone, but the moral playground they dance on is one we know, recognize from our own small part of the world.

One Reason Why You Didn't Want Kristine Thornton

To Talk During Town Board Meetings

on an unnamed citizen

running for town board

He's meteoaker

just trash not worth picking up;

a bucket with two holes

in the bottom

and a tore out pouring edge

From sidebar minutes of the monthly

Town Board Meetings

12 May 1953

...

The palette stacker

Let me tell you something, Travis

woman to man as your Assistant

Personnel Director this one time

Hoyt there is in charge

of this entire mill's palette stacking

being a one man team

and if I were you which I'm not

I'd be careful about how

you've been talking to him

he's an odd duck and just doesn't

take to teasing any

and here' the consideration

I'm thinking I might take

if I were you which I'm not

that skinny little man

lifts 10 boxes of sheets every minute

and stacks them on his palette

that's 600 boxes of sheets an hour

which means in a workday

he lifts and stacks just about exactly

4,800 boxes of sheets

each box weighing 44 pounds exactly

which if you do the sum

comes to just a tad over

211 thousand pounds of lifts and stacks

on his palettes every day

five days a week and six

once we get to the holiday sale season

Travis, to put this in plain linguitch

as the good old boys say

so you might understand it

that skinny little man

who is from Shakeslovaskia

which is why to you he seems

to talk funny but he doesn't agree

has muscles in his shit

and if you tick him off making fun of him

bad enough to have him come at you

I can tell you for a certainty

the next one to wipe your butt

will be the undertaker

if you catch my drift

...

At one point Today's book of poetry was all set to tackle ALL of the marvelous David Lee material we have in the stacks but then realized we simply wanted to copy out every poem and share them with you. This extraordinary poetry deserves to be celebrated, and loudly.

If it were possible Today's book of poetry would lead a David Lee march right into the ballroom of The Poetry Hall of Fame. How often do we get to call a living poet Great? Here's your chance.

David Lee

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

David Lee was raised in Post, Texas (southeast of Lubbock, northeast of Lamesa — think hot, dry and flat), a background he has never completely escaped, despite his varied experiences as a seminary student, a boxer and semi-pro baseball player (the only white player to ever play for the Negro League Post Texas Blue Stars) known for his knuckleball, a hog farmer, and a decorated Army veteran. Along the way he earned a Ph.D., taught at various universities, and recently retired as the Chairman of the Department of Language and Literature at Southern Utah University.

After 30 years in Utah, Lee and his wife Jan took to the road to become more-or-less full-time wanderers. Passing through Bandera, Texas, Lee says, "We just fell in love. We noticed nine bars and two churches and thought this is where God lives." They settled in Bandera for a few years, but spent half of the year traveling, mostly on the backroads of the western U.S. They now live somewhere in Nevada.

Lee was named Utah's first Poet Laureate in 1997, and has received both the Mountains & Plains Booksellers Award in Poetry and the Western States Book Award in Poetry. Lee received the Utah Governor's Award for lifetime achievement and was listed among Utah's top twelve writers of all time by the Utah Endowment for the Humanities. He is the author of over twenty books of poetry. In 2004, So Quietly the Earth was selected for the New York Public Library's annual "Books to Remember" list.

BLURBS

If we were a civilized nation, we would declare David Lee a national treasure.
— Sam Hamill, author of Habitation: Collected Poems

This one's a lucky pick: Rural Texas back when — memory filtered through the eloquent country vernacular and irreverent, bawdy imagination of David Lee, who can stretch the truth until delight shines straight through, unspool a nonstop sentence like a bad cat with a ball of yarn, see through the eyes of a woman just the same as a man, and hilariously take down hypocrisy and pretention, especially "preaching, zeal maintenance and overlording." (Full disclosure: love the guy, but then, read on and I bet you will too.)
— Eleanor Wilner, MacArthur Fellow, author of The Girl with Bees in Her Hair and Tourist in Hell

Poems cited here are assumed to be under copyright by the poet and/or publisher. They are shown here for publicity and review purposes. For any other kind of re-use of these poems, please contact the listed publishers for permission.

We here at TBOP are technically deficient and rely on our bashful Milo to fix everything. We received notice from Google that we were using "cookies"

and that for our readers in Europe there had to be notification of the use of those "cookies. Please be aware that TBOP may employ the use of some "cookies" (whatever they are) and you should take that into consideration.